Blackness is not simply a reactionary title or identity; that is indeed the "negative" way of characterizing African American identity.

My ambition didn't grow out of nowhere. It was planted in me by a community that nurtured me.

I don't believe in that kind of American John Wayne individualism where people pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Someone changed your diapers. And if that's the case, you ain't self-made.

Blackness is not simply a reactionary title or identity; that is indeed the "negative" way of characterizing African American identity.

You must address the historical and political differences in race and ethnicity in this country before you hold tenaciously to insubstantial, and unsubtantiated, beliefs.

I have written 13 books, full of my ideas about a variety of issues - from black women, to hip-hop culture, to the civil rights struggle. Even when I address such figures as Tupac Shakur and Bill Cosby, my ideas are quite evident.

Hip-hop has globalized a conception of blackness that has had a political impact, whether or not it had a political intent.